Man who was protected by gorilla when he was five years old reveals how incident has shaped his life
Levan Merritt woke up in the gorilla enclosure after accidentally falling in
A man who found himself being protected by a gorilla after he ended up in its enclosure has spoken out about how the experience changed his life going forwards.
As much as we might all have wanted to cuddle the lion or hang out with the monkeys while visiting the zoo as kids, there's a reason there are barriers separating humans and wild animals.
The creatures can be unpredictable, as proven when a three-year-old boy fell into an enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo in 2017, leading to the sad - and now iconic - death of the gorilla Harambe.
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But decades before the incident involving Harambe, another little boy named Levan Merritt found himself face-to-face with a different gorilla.
The scene unfolded in 1986, when five-year-old Levan visited Jersey Zoo with his family. He was leaning over the railings to look at the gorillas when he suddenly lost his balance and toppled right into the enclosure.
Levan fell unconscious when he hit the ground, and the situation only turned more scary when Jambo the silverback gorilla made his way over to the little boy.
Jambo could have attacked, but instead he became protective of the little boy and began stroking his back. Jambo stood guard over Levan, making sure the other gorillas in the enclosure couldn't harm him.
Levan had already been injured in the fall, however, and when he regained consciousness he began screaming from the pain of a cracked skull and a broken arm.
His screams caused Jambo to run away, just as one of the zookeepers came in armed with a stick to try and save the young boy.
The zookeeper was soon joined by another man as well as an ambulance worker, who succeeded in getting Levan out of the enclosure. He was airlifted to hospital, where he spent six weeks in recovery.
Though Levan was only little at the time, he looked back on his experience in an interview with the MailOnline, revealing he'd remained in close contact with the zoo after the incident.
"I am forever thankful to Jambo as obviously it could have gone one or two ways," he said.
"It was amazing how he protected me in that way."
Levan did find himself subject to bullying in school after he fell into the enclosure, but he shrugged it off and maintained a love for animals, which he's since passed on to his children.
"The children have a keen interest in animals themselves - although it is mainly dinosaurs at the moment," he continued.
"I often take them to Tilgate Park in Crawley which has a little zoo, but I would like to take them to Jersey Zoo. I have been quite a few times and it always makes me feel lucky to be here."
Emily Brown